1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mobile terminal, and more specifically to a folding mobile terminal in which a 2-axis hinge unit rotatably couples two housings.
2. Description of the Related Art
A mobile telephone can be of a straight type, a folding type, etc. Since a folding mobile telephone can be provided with a large liquid crystal display unit, it is widely used by a large number of users. Conventionally, a majority of the mobile telephones of this type are designed to allow an upper housing having a display unit and a lower housing having an operation unit to be open and closed to each other. Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 11-30226, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2002-118633, etc. have disclosed a mobile telephone in which a 2-axis hinge unit rotatably couples two housings. With the mobile telephone of this type, an upper housing can be rotated and be folded. Therefore, when the mobile telephone is folded, the display unit can be arranged outside. However, the mobile telephone normally has its key operation unit in the lower housing. Therefore, although the folded mobile telephone has its display unit facing outside, it is not possible to operate the key operation unit in the lower housing. A pointing device occupies a large area of the key operation unit. However, since the upper housing is occupied by a large display unit, it is hard to arrange the pointing device in the upper housing.